Feds order extra operators, signal changes for Metro-North Railroad

NEW YORK >> U.S. transportation officials ordered the Metro-North Railroad on Friday to quickly overhaul its signal system and temporarily put an extra worker in the driver’s cab on some routes that have major speed changes, including the one where a speeding commuter train derailed in New York City this week, killing four people.

The emergency order by the Federal Railroad Administration was a reaction to Sunday’s wreck, in which a train flew off the tracks after hitting a curve at 82 mph, nearly three times the 30-mph speed limit.

The lone train operator told investigators he nodded off at the controls and didn’t apply the brakes until it was too late.

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There was no system in place to ensure he didn’t miss the spot where he had to slow down as the curve approached.

Engineers are required to know speed restrictions by heart, but there are no flashing lights, or even signs, to remind them to decelerate.

“While we assist the National Transportation Safety Board in carrying out its investigation, this emergency order will help ensure that other Metro-North trains travel at appropriate, safe speeds,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

The order gives the railroad until Dec. 31 to provide the Federal Railroad Administration with a plan and target dates for modifying the existing signal system so that trains will automatically slow down in places where the speed limit drops by more than 20 mph.

Until those signal changes are made, the order will require the rail line to put at least two qualified workers in the operator’s cab on sections of track where speeds vary.

On some routes, this may mean that a conductor can head to the cab and accompany the engineer for a few minutes when the train is approaching a slower zone. On others, there will have to be an extra crew member who makes the whole trip because the operator’s cab is not accessible from other train cars.

The extra workers will be required until the railroad upgrades its existing signal and automatic control systems in a way that will deliver “adequate advance warning” of speed restrictions, federal officials said.

“These modifications will help prevent another over-the-speed-limit event if a locomotive engineer fails to take actions to appropriately slow or stop a passenger train,” the railroad administration said in a statement.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees Metro-North, said it would comply with the order.

The federal agency gave the authority until Dec. 10 to identify all the spots in the system where there is a 20 mph speed variation. MTA officials couldn’t immediately say how many extra workers it might have to add, or whether doing so would pose a challenge.

It said it also is examining other steps to improve safety following the crash.

Separately, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday that he had asked the MTA to make several safety changes, including expediting speed controls for areas vulnerable to crashes on the Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuter systems.

Cuomo also wants to accelerate efforts to install technology called “positive train control,” which can automatically bring a train to a stop if it’s exceeding a speed limit. Railroads are facing a congressional deadline to install such systems by December 2015. The MTA has been installing the technology, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.

William Henderson of the Metro-North Railroad Commuter Council, a passenger advocacy panel, said the drive for better technology is welcomed, but he’s not sure how much the process can be accelerated even with Cuomo’s urging. He said positive train control could improve safety, but said the technology hasn’t been tested on a high-volume commuter rail.

“There are big questions of how it will work when there are a lot of trains moving through it,” he said in an interview.